For someone who’s never loved being told what to do (apologies to my parents), I’m weirdly deferential to experts. I love to be a good patient at the GP or the dentist, following their advice to the tee and cherishing positive comments. There’s nothing better to me than being told I’m doing a good job by someone who knows what they’re talking about.
Naturally, this extended to the hairdresser. Box dye, as the saying goes, will fry your hair and ruin your life. It’s a sign of bad judgment and impulsiveness, and if you have any sense at all, you’ll leave your colour to the professionals.
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I did for more than a decade, through various shades of red, copper and blonde, through international moves and lockdowns and dwindling savings. It was the responsible thing to do, I thought.
I continued deferring to my hairdresser until late last year when I was getting a pint with a friend whose first baby wasn’t quite yet one. We had worked together at a beauty retailer and regularly share beauty hacks. Fragrance and eyeshadow, we agreed, are genuinely better at a higher price point, while cleanser and mascara can be bought at Priceline.
Her hair looked amazing, as usual, but when she told me she’d been tiding herself over by doing her own colour at home, I just about choked. I didn’t want to believe it but the evidence was in front of me: her hair was a glossy, warm shade of brunette and looked just as good (if not better) than it after a salon appointment.
“Believe it,” she said. “And it’s $30 a pop.”
The hairdresser I’d been seeing was amazing but I’d changed jobs, and she was now on the other side of town, a 45-minute journey each way. My last appointment had meant leaving the house around 9.30am and not getting back until after 4pm. I couldn’t keep doing this every six weeks, not to mention paying up to $300 to get my roots done, so I was immediately interested.
My friend sent me a link to The Shade, an online store where she’d been buying her colour. Surely I could do it once and see how I went, I reasoned. If it was a disaster, I’d get told off in the salon but I’d live.
When my hair next grew out, I bit the bullet. The colour (Genoa Light Brown) arrived with a mixing bowl and a brush, plus oil to put on your hairline and ears (to keep them from picking up a tint), and a cape to protect your shoulders. At 9pm on a Wednesday, I got to work.
My first attempt was a little messy but any doubts were put to rest when I went out the next night. The first comment I got was: “Your hair looks amazing.”
“Box dye,” I said to gasps. “They’re going to put me in jail.”
Except, they’re probably not. I’ve spoken to two hairdressers since and they both get it. Life is expensive and we don’t all have half a day to sit in the salon. I’m not doing anything complicated, just touching up my own roots and crucially, I’m not lightening it. Know your limits, was the message but box dyeing your hair isn’t the end of the world.
Will I continue box dyeing my hair?
I’m now four months into my box dye journey, having coloured the whole lot once and topped up my roots at five-weekly intervals since. I can’t tell you how convenient it is and you truly can’t argue with the price.
I wouldn’t do this myself if I was still after highlights, or a bright copper, or anything more complicated than ‘medium brown’. But even professionally done bleach was slowing killing my hair – and I want it long, thick and healthy more than anything else. I can now safely say I’ll be doing my own colour for the foreseeable future.
My advice for colouring your hair at home
- Choose your colour carefully. It will come out darker than you expect.
- Apply the dye evenly as you can. Section your hair, put more on your parting and hairline than you think, and check the back by making sure all your roots feel wet.
- Don’t layer colour endlessly. You don’t need to do your lengths every time. This is what will mess you up if you do go back to the salon: layers and layers of permanent colour.
- Do not melt your hair off. Leave the bleach to the experts.
- Keep it natural. Covering greys and adding gloss will be a lot more forgiving than a drastic colour change.
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This article After 15 years of salon colouring, I tried box dye and I’m not looking back appeared first on Fashion Journal.
2025-04-22 10:40:00
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